This National Debating Competition sought to educate young people in Malta about the importance of knowing how to debate and think on your feet discussing important topics such as peace, justice, inclusion etc. The competition aimed to identify the JCI Malta Debating Champion. This Debating Champion will be sponsored by JCI Malta to debate in the 2021 JCI Europe Debating Competition which will happen during the European Conference.

Project Overview

Being mainly an educational programme, the project was run between January and August. While January was focused on preparing for the project to be run, from February all through August JCI Debating & Public Speaking organised a variety of trainings that served as preparatory sessions for debating teams and other individuals interested in the debating competition as well as those who simply want to learn how to master debates and discussion in everyday life.

Trainings held in the preparatory months:

• Debating 101: Focused on the rules and regulations of JCI debating (teams of 3 in Government vs Opposition formation), as well as all the ins and outs of becoming a successful debater.
• Debating Like: This was a series of 3 online webinars where debaters got the opportunity to learn how to debate like the media, like a politician and like a lawyer. This was done with the aim to help debaters make their arguments in debating more fun and see how they can implement skills used in these different fields within JCI debating.
• Debating Skills with Eric Fitzpatrick: During this online webinar, members learnt: 1. How to make your point clearly and succinctly, 2. How to engage the judges and your audience, 3. How to insert humour, 4. How to shorten, sharpen and strengthen your message, 5. How to identify the key issues being debated, 6. The benefit of treating everything they say as if it’s a question, and 7. How to make your argument more compelling
• Friendly Debating Sessions: 6 friendly debating sessions were held where different competing teams could get the opportunity to put all that they have learnt from the online sessions in practice. Here they got to debate different kind of motions starting from simple and fun ones to the more important social and community issues.

The whole project ended with the organisation of a competition. This was held at an old fortress in our capital city Valletta, Fort St Elmo, which allowed the debaters to also immerse themselves in Malta’s history.

This project has been funded through the Voluntary Organisations Project Scheme managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector on behalf of Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sports, and Voluntary Organisations within the Ministry for Education and Employment.

Our winners

The team ‘The Prometheans ‘ won the National Debating Competition organised in 2020. The team was made up of Natasha Singh as team captain, Joshua Singh as the first speaker, and Vittorio Emanuele Camilleri as the second speaker.

The second place was awarded to the group ‘The Minutes’ made up of Raphael Sammut DeMarco as team captain, Gian Peralta as first speaker, and Matthias Azzopardi as second speaker.

Other recognitions:

• Most Outstanding Debater – Natasha Singh
• Most Outstanding Teamwork – The Minutes
• Best Rebuttal – Vittorio Emanuele Camilleri
• Best Point of Information – Matthias Azzopardi
• Best Point of Information Rebuttal – Celaine Vella
• Best Motion Definition – The Prometheans
• Honorary Mentions – Lara Attard, Kathleen Bulteel, Raphael Sammut Demarco

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